Creature Fear Share The Soundtrack To Their Highs And Lows

Naarm/Melbourne outfit Creature Fear have just unveiled their most recent single, My Girl's A Dream But She Only Loves Jesus, and as you might expect, they’re riding pretty high right now.

Having been in the game for close to a decade now, the new single joins an impressive catalogue of tracks and follows on from 2024’s Sorbet. It’s as intriguing as it is quirky, much like the band themselves, taking influence from iconic names such as XTC, Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello.

“Lyrically, it’s a cheeky character-driven song which expresses the feelings of nothing making sense, everything being chaotically random, and the experience of falling into an existential crisis,” explains Cameron Graham.

“It explores religion, life and love – and although this all sounds super deep, it’s an uplifting kooky song that tries to celebrate life’s absurdity.”

With the new single out in the world now, and with a launch show scheduled to take place at The Gem in Melbourne on May 10 (they’re also hitting up Geelong’s Barwon Club the night before), the band have celebrated their recent wins by curating a playlist that reflects their highs, their lows, and the inspirations of their latest track.

Tom Jones & The Cardigans – Burning Down The House 

This collab shouldn’t work as well as it does – but it’s just so good. It’s so fun and full of life and energy. I don’t know if it’s cheesy, but if it is, it’s still perfect. Talking Heads were a big inspiration sonically for our latest track, but I’m including this version because I just want more people to know it exists.

The mix of Tom’s charismatic powerful vocal alongside Nina’s cool as hell attitude with no bells and whistles is just such a fun mix and makes my heart happy and head nod.

XTC – Love On A Farmboy’s Wages

I love XTC. I also love character songs that create a little world. This song does that. I went through a period where XTC was the only band I listened to for like a year straight. It’s got this deliberately stretched out monotone vocal in the verse that reflects the long days of being a farmer before exploding in a burst of colour in the choruses, it’s such a sonically visual song that reflects the lyrics.

I think of our latest song, My Girl's A Dream But She Only Loves Jesus, as a character song too, like a bunch of our others tracks (Cleanup Man, Mars, etc.), especially with what it has to say about religion. I feel like the character’s taking a more solid stance than I ever could. I’m personally pretty agnostic and yeah, just confused as hell. 

Julia Jacklin – Lydia Wears A Cross

The bleak simplicity of the story Jacklin tells in this song is so pure, yet so loaded with thoughtful nuanced imagery around religious upbringing. In My Girl's A Dream But She Only Loves Jesus, our dream-girl is Lydia.

We would also, like Jacklin, probably be believers if it was all just song and dance.

Elvis Costello – Watching The Detectives

This song too, for me is all about the sonic world it creates. You are there. Even if you aren’t listening to the lyrics you still know exactly what it’s about. It’s intriguing, kind of weirdly sexy and radiates whatever neon lights looked like in the 1940s. Then you read the lyrics and it knocks you out again. 

Last Dinner Party – Sinner 

This blazing number is about feeling love and lust and desire, but with the extra spice of religious guilt. It’s exhilarating and intoxicating and messy, but taps into the same playfulness we wanted to infuse into our new track.

Dr. Sure’s Unusual Practice – All My Friends Are All My Friends

We love this band. They are so god damn good. Their creativity and eccentric soundscapes… so much energy and it’s all executed so well. Feels like you could be listening to them over the radio at a bar on an alien planet. Their new wave synth hooks tickle the brain.

Judee Sill – The Kiss 

This song is so incredibly beautiful. First time I heard it I couldn’t believe it. Lyrically, there are much sadder songs out there, but something about this song, sonically to me, just resonates with a feeling of numbness and surrender. It’s sad, but calming sad.

Judee also uses a lot of religious imagery in her music, so sincerely too, which in the context of her life story is pretty fascinating and powerful. 

Yoko Ono – Sleepless Night

Picking this song because it’s bizarre, fun and conveys a similar sense of confusion to everything as does our latest track. It’s got slick ‘80s production, essential Yoko noises and deep philosophical questions such as ‘What am I going to do with my legs?’. Which can really make you stop and think.

Shrimpwitch – Green Potato

One of my favourite bands to come from Melbourne is Shrimpwitch. Georgi has such a cool fun style with her drums and it’s definitely inspired me for this one – made me want to get the cowbell out!

Bob Dylan – Pressing On

I unironically love Dylan’s religious period. I sing songs from this era around the house and it drives people crazy. Even Bob fans tend to skip over this period, but his prolific creativity in these years shows what powerful inspiration his belief had for him, and I think that’s really cool.

I put this track at the end cause I didn’t want to interrupt the flow too much, but I just love the sincerity and purpose in his voice, combined with the incredible back up gospel singers and constantly building arrangement.

The first time I heard it and it ended I got shivers (though I think I had had too much coffee that day and was quite susceptible due to lightheadedness). But ahhh, his voice, I hope I can be this sure about something someday.